Single Cream substitute

Best substitute

Half-and-half, or American light cream

Use the same amount as the single cream you are replacing

Best for pouring over desserts

Close match

Half-and-half or American light cream swap one for one and are the direct equivalents, light cream almost exactly so. The best swap of all is a richer cream cut with milk, and the ratio depends which cream you have: American heavy cream is about 36 percent fat, so use roughly half cream and half whole milk; British double cream is up to 48 percent, so use about one part cream to two parts milk. Both land close enough to single cream that nothing in the dish will notice. For cooked sauces and soups, seven eighths of a cup of whole milk whisked with one and a half tablespoons of melted butter is a reliable pantry fix. What single cream is doing is fat and fluid richness: it mellows acidity and heat, rounds a sauce and adds mouthfeel. What it is not doing is anything structural, and this is the part that catches people out. At 18 percent fat it will not whip, ever, and it splits if you boil it, which is why so many people end up searching for this mid-recipe.

Other single cream substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Double cream or heavy cream, diluted with milk
Close match
Use ½ cup heavy cream + ½ cup whole milk, or ⅓ cup double cream + ⅔ cup whole milk for every 1 cup single cream
Cutting a high-fat cream down to single-cream fat content.
What changes
Best for
everything single cream is used for, sauces, soups, pouring, quiche
Genuinely the best substitute available, because the flavour is identical dairy cream and you can dial the richness to wherever you want it. Watch which cream you are holding, because the two are not the same strength: American heavy cream at around 36 percent needs roughly equal parts milk, while British double cream at up to 48 percent needs about twice its volume in milk to come down to a pouring cream. Err on the side of slightly too much cream rather than too much milk, since a fraction too rich just tastes better while too thin goes watery. Worth knowing: if the recipe is a reduced pan sauce, consider not diluting it at all. Undiluted double cream is richer and thicker but far more forgiving over heat, because the extra fat protects the proteins, so a sauce made with it simply will not split. Only dilute when you want the thinner pouring consistency.
3Whole milk plus melted butter
Different texture
Use ⅞ cup whole milk + 1.5 tbsp melted butter, whisked for every 1 cup single cream
An emulsion you build yourself from two things almost every kitchen has.
What changes
Best for
soups and sauces, quiche and savoury custards, mashed potato, baking
The best pantry fix, and in a cooked dish nobody can tell. It is a loose emulsion rather than a stable cream, though, so it can look faintly separated in a thin clear sauce and it is no better than real single cream at withstanding a boil. Whisk it well and add it warm. Do not use it for pouring over a dessert: uncooked it tastes exactly like buttery milk, which is not pleasant on a crumble.
4Evaporated milk
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount
Shelf-stable concentrated milk, unsweetened, from a tin.
What changes
Best for
curries and stews, soups, mashed potato, sauces you need to reduce hard
Its useful trick is heat stability: the proteins are already heat-treated during canning, so evaporated milk resists curdling far better than real single cream and is the safest choice for a sauce you have to boil down. The cost is flavour and richness. It has much less fat, so the dish is noticeably leaner, and it carries a distinct cooked, faintly caramel taste that is invisible in a spiced curry and glaringly obvious in a delicate cream sauce or poured over fruit.
5Creme fraiche or soured cream, thinned with milk
Different taste
Use ½ cup creme fraiche + 2 to 3 tbsp milk for every cup of single cream
A cultured cream loosened to pouring consistency.
What changes
Best for
mushroom and pan sauces, soups finished off the heat, stroganoff, savoury baking
The flavour shifts noticeably: it is tangy and lactic rather than sweet and mellow, so a mushroom sauce comes out brighter and slightly sharp, which is often an improvement. Creme fraiche is around 30 percent fat and will not split even at a rolling boil, which makes it far more reliable than single cream in a reduction. Sour cream is lower in fat and will split, so stir that in off the heat only, and never let it boil.
6Oat, soya or coconut single cream
Different taste
Use the same amount
Plant-based pouring creams, usually sold in cartons next to the dairy.
What changes
Best for
dairy-free sauces and soups, pouring over desserts, curries, pasta sauces
Oat cream is the closest and the most useful, because it is formulated to be boil-stable and it pours and cooks almost exactly like single cream. It tastes slightly sweeter and thinner with a faint cereal note, and it browns a little more in a pan. Soya cream is more neutral and marginally thinner. Coconut cream works and is very stable over heat, but it will make the dish taste of coconut, which is welcome in a curry and wrong in a carbonara.

What is Single Cream?

Single Cream is Single cream is British pouring cream with around 18 percent milk fat, thin enough to pour over a pudding and rich enough to loosen a sauce, and its closest American equivalent is light cream.

Cooking tips

Single cream splits if you boil it. At 18 percent fat there is not enough fat coating the milk proteins to stop them clumping, so add it at the end, off the heat or barely on it, and never let a single-cream sauce return to a rolling boil.
Single cream will not whip, no matter how cold it is or how long you beat it. There is simply not enough fat to trap air. If a recipe wants whipped cream you need whipping cream at around 35 percent, or double or heavy cream at 36 to 48 percent. Beating single cream for ten minutes only gives you slightly frothy single cream.
Temper it into hot or acidic liquids. Stir a ladleful of the hot sauce into the cold cream first, then pour the warmed mixture back into the pan. Adding cold cream straight into a boiling tomato, wine or lemon sauce is the most common cause of a curdled, grainy result.
A teaspoon of plain flour or cornflour whisked into the cream before it goes into the pan stabilises the proteins and lets you simmer a single-cream sauce without it breaking. This is a standard restaurant trick and it costs nothing.
Single cream freezes badly, separating into unpleasant grains that never fully come back. If you have half a pot left over, use it in a soup, a mash or a batch of scrambled eggs rather than freezing it. If you must freeze it, plan to blend it smooth after thawing and use it only in a cooked dish.

Frequently asked questions

Is single cream the same as heavy cream or double cream?

No, and it is not an interchangeable swap. Single cream is around 18 percent milk fat; American heavy cream is 36 percent and British double cream is up to 48 percent. That difference decides whether the cream whips and whether it survives a boil, and single cream does neither. If a recipe says double or heavy cream, do not use single cream where the cream has to whip, set or hold a shape.

Is single cream the same as light cream?

Effectively yes. Single cream is the British name for pouring cream at around 18 percent fat, and American light cream covers 18 to 30 percent, so the two overlap almost exactly at the bottom of that range. Swap them one for one in any direction with no adjustment. Half-and-half is the next step down at around 12 percent and is slightly thinner and less rich.

Can I use single cream instead of double cream?

It depends on the job. For pouring, enriching a soup, loosening a sauce or making a quiche custard, yes, and the result is simply a little lighter. For anything that has to whip, set or hold a shape, such as whipped cream, ganache, panna cotta or a piped filling, no, and no technique will rescue it. To bridge partway, add a tablespoon of melted butter per half cup of single cream, which raises the fat but still will not let it whip.

Can I just leave the cream out?

In a soup, a curry or a pasta sauce, yes. It will come out thinner, sharper and less mellow, and you can round it off the heat with a knob of butter, a spoonful of yogurt or a splash of milk. In a quiche, a baked custard, a panna cotta or a ganache the fat is structural and the recipe will not set properly without it, so there you need a real cream substitute rather than nothing.

Why did my single cream curdle?

Almost certainly one of two things. You boiled it, and at 18 percent fat the proteins clumped. Or you added it cold, straight into something hot and acidic like a tomato or wine sauce, and the acid shocked the proteins. Fix it next time by tempering the cream with a ladle of hot liquid first and by whisking in a teaspoon of flour or cornflour beforehand. A curdled sauce can often be smoothed out with a stick blender.

Related substitutes

More dairy substitutes

Single Cream substitute

Other single cream substitutes

2Double cream or heavy cream, diluted with milk

3Whole milk plus melted butter

4Evaporated milk

5Creme fraiche or soured cream, thinned with milk

6Oat, soya or coconut single cream